WHEN is a Jew not a Jew? When hes a Karaite. Or so says Israels chief rabbinate, which, after 65 years of relative harmony with an ancient Jewish sect, is reopening an old and bitter schism. In recent months, rabbis working for Israels ministry of religion have deemed Karaite marriages invalid, fined their butchers for claiming to be kosher, and demanded that Karaites marrying Orthodox Jewish women should convert, sometimes having to undergo tavila, or baptism. We are already Jews, protests Moshe Firrouz, a computer engineer who heads the Karaites Council of Sages. The rabbinate is denying us our religious freedom.

For over 1,300 years Karaites have battled with Rabbanites (adherents to mainstream Judaism) over their rejection of the Talmud, the corpus of an oral tradition that Rabbanites claim God gave Moses with the written Torah on Mount Sinai. Clinging to the biblical word alone, Karaites regard skullcaps, phylacteries (little leather boxes containing Torah scrolls), matrilineal descent and non-biblical festivals, such as the Festival of Lights, as pagan accretions. Like Muslims oras they prefer to saylike Temple-era Jews, they prostrate barefoot on carpets. The Orthodox add and the Reform take away, says a recent Karaite convert. It is only we who follow the Torah.

Once almost as numerous as Rabbanites, todays Karaites make up less than 1% of Israels 6m Jews. Persecution has whittled their number down. The greatest classical Jewish theologian, Moses Maimonides, denounced them as minim, or heretics, and banned them from public prayer; others termed their children bastards, since their parents married in weddings which diverged from the Orthodox rite.

...Karaites have lesser Jewish rights, too. Israel is a Jewish state and Jews have superior rights, says the chief rabbinates spokesman. But the Karaites are not Jewish.

This article is complete nonsense. It does not even contain an author's name.... and little wonder. The Karaites ARE considered Jews, They are considered just a different sect of Jews by all, with the exception of the Ultra-Otrthodox Jewish ( Hariedi )sects, who tend not regard any other sect of Judaism- such as Traditional Orthodox, Flexidox, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, or Reformed, as Torah Observant Jews, either...lol. So, it is no surprise that they would reject the Karaites, as well. They do follow Torah, but the argument is that if you do not follow the Talmud, then you do not know how the laws are applied. For those who do not know what the Talmud actually is, let me remove the mystery. It is simply a written compendium of ongoing discussions, opinions, and Rabbinc rulings on the oral law by various Rabbis over several hundred years. There are actually 2 of them. The Jerusalem and the Babylonian. 3,325 years ago, Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) brought down the Tablets which contained the 10 Commandments. The 10 Commandments is the "outline headers" or "categories" of the 613 Mitzvot ( Commandments) a Jew must perform. But.... he also brought down the Oral Law- the explanations of how they were to be applied, and thus, he taught the people, well before he transcribed the Torah, and made a scroll for each tribe. The Oral law is the explanation/details and the "How-to's." Karaites reccognize the Tanakh- the 24 seferim ( Books) of the Torah as the authority in Halakha ( Jewish Law). They maintain that all of the divine commandments handed down to Moshe by HaShem were recorded in the written Torah, without the need of additional Oral Law or explanation. As a result,they do not accept as binding, the written collections of the oral tradition in the Mishnah or Talmud. They do not light the Shabbas Candles, nor wear Tefillin, or place Mezzuzot on their doorposts. This article also falsely accused Maimonides ( The Rambam), as well. He did not hold the authority to ban anyone from public prayer. No Rabbi does. "Maimonides, wrote that people who deny the divine authority of the Oral Torah are considered among the heretics. However, at the same time Maimonides holds (Hilkhot Mamrim 3:3) that most of the Karaites and others who claim to deny the "oral teachings" are not to be held accountable for their errors in the law because they are led into error by their parents and are similar to a tinoq shenishbah (a captive baby), or to one who was forced. Rabbinic scholars have traditionally held that, because the Karaites do not observe the rabbinic law on divorce, there is a strong presumption that they are mamzerim (adulterine bastards), so that marriage with them is forbidden even if they return to Rabbinic Judaism. Some recent Ashekenazi Ḥaredi scholars have held that Karaites should be regarded as Gentiles in all respects, though this is not universally accepted. They hasten to add that this opinion is not intended to insult the Karaites, but only to give individual Karaites the option of integrating into mainstream Judaism by way of conversion. In contrast, in 1971 Rav Ovadia Yosef, who was then the Rishon LeṢiyyon/Chief Rabbi of the Sefaradim and Edot HaMizraḥ of Israel, proclaimed that Karaites are Jews "LeKhol Davar" (literally, for all purposes) and that it is permissible for Rabbanite Jews to marry with them." The accusation that they have lesser rights is absolute nonsense. And the author of the article is a liar. Little wonder he hides his name. Cronos, you really should check the validity of your sources before posting articles of this nature. It is very misleading. In fact, it is total and complete crap.

The Karaites wouldn’t be in Israel unless they were admitted under the Law of Return. That what counts, not their 1,000-year dispute with the rabbis. During WWII Karaites, in the Crimea, persuaded the Germans that they weren’t Jews and weren’t rounded up. But in the Ukraine they were taken to Babi Yar. They confused the Germans; in some parts of Europe they were taken, in some parts they weren’t. There was one German woman who had an obsession that the Karaites were getting away with it (being a Jew) and pestered Eichmann and his bureaucrats all through the war not to let it happen.

The Karaites wouldnt be in Israel unless they were admitted under the Law of Return. That what counts, not their 1,000-year dispute with the rabbis. During WWII Karaites, in the Crimea, persuaded the Germans that they werent Jews and werent rounded up. But in the Ukraine they were taken to Babi Yar. They confused the Germans; in some parts of Europe they were taken, in some parts they werent. There was one German woman who had an obsession that the Karaites were getting away with it (being a Jew) and pestered Eichmann and his bureaucrats all through the war not to let it happen.

The Karaylar, Tatar Karaites, are not normal Karaites. Most Karaites in Israel and the US are Egyptian Jews. The Karaylar are Tatars who speak a Kipchak dialects. They did not call themselves Jews, but Turks of the Mosaic faith. They were treated as non-Jews by the Czars. In Lithuania, Karaylar were slaughtered. In Crimea, the Muslim and Christian Tatars protected them. The Karaim, Rabbinate Tatar Jews were afforded no protection and were slaughtered.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.